Day 45 (July 12th, 2016) Walden CO – Saratoga WY; 68 miles

Colorado didn’t want us to leave, seeing as how it froze us all in our tents this morning. We stayed in the city park overnight and from 11pm on, we (I was at least) were harassed by sprinklers. Apparently I set up my tent right next to one, unbeknownst to me, and it was doing its thing all night long. I couldn’t move my tent at that point, so I just slept through it. In the morning I could barely open my tent fly because my whole tent was encased in ice (yes, it was that cold). After I broke through, I noticed that my bike was also frozen. I had to time moving everything with the sprinkler so I wouldn’t get doused, and in doing so, was too distracted to snap a picture of the nonsense. As the morning wore on, those who weren’t hit by the sprinklers at night were hit as they were packing up. It was like a mine field and if it wasn’t so darn cold, it would be comical.

But eventually we thawed out and said our goodbye to CO and ventured our way into Wyoming. We passed by the wild fire and could smell it pretty strongly. As soon as we passed into WY we hit those head and cross winds again. As usual, it was demoralizing but I have at least come to terms with it. As we rode into the afternoon we noticed that the wildfire smoke was billowing even more due to the winds. I was so distracted by it that I almost rode right over antelope roadkill, but Sheena came to my rescue just in the knick of time.

WY is pretty desolate so we have to be very mindful of our water and not to get too low. My parents met us at the end of the ride and provided dinner for us all. Everyone was very appreciative. We are staying in a motel for the night and I get to sleep cuddled up next to Addie! Perfect way to end a tough day.